CONVERSATIONAL ERRORS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 23, Issue 5, 19 January 1912, Page 2

CONVERSATIONAL ERRORS.

SMALL POINTS THAT BETRAY “BREEDING.” By conversational errors I do not mean so much grammatical. mistakes as those little faults of speech which distinguish the ill-bred •' from the well-bred man. Still, a word may be said about grammatical errors. A very common one is to say “Between you and I.” This is not only grammatically wrong, but is often the mark of ah imperfectly educated person who is pretending that he is better than be is. He has heard that it is grammatically wrong to say “It’s me,” that, strictly speaking, you should say “It is I.” As a matter of fact, many well bred people do not say “It is I,” for such correctness in ordinary conversation savours of pedantry, and a well-bred man, being natural in everything, does not stop to pick and choose his grammar when in the company of his friends. The man, however, who says “Between you and I,” is trying to be extra “genteel.” He thinks that “Between you and' me” is as incorrect as “It’s me," and thus exposes not only his ignorance, but a certain snobbishness of character. There is no need to think the less of a man because he sometimes mispronounces a word, and it is as well to remember that your idea of correct pronunciation may itself be wrong. Above all things, never correct a man for a mispronunciation, real or fancied. Some men in such a case, have a trick of reintroducing the double word, and pronouncing it correctly, or as they think is correct. This is bad manners. A well-bred man in such circumstances would avoid bring- ! ing the word again, or, if he bad to do so, would pronounce it in the same way as the other man. Turning now to those habits of speech which differentiate the gentleman and the man who is not “quite the thing,” more mistakes are made over the use of the terms “lady” and “gentleman” than in any other direction. The lower you go in the social scale, the greater is the insistence on “lady” and “gentleman.”

I daresay some of you will remember “Punch’s” delightful picture, representing a scene in a hatter’s shop. A “pucca” swell has returned to complain of a hat previously purchased, '“Was it the gentleman over there who served you, sir,” says the assistant. “Wo, it was-the nobleman in the whiskers over there,” was the reply. Most of you, I expect, are familiar with the servant who leaves your rich aunt shivering on the doormat whilst she comes to tell you that there is a woman wants to see you, but who, when the washerwoman calls in answer to your complaints about your shirts and collars, announces that there is a lady in the drawing-room waiting to see you. Theatrical musicians or choristers are “Gentlemen of the orchestra,” or “ladies and gentlemen of the chorus.” Your barber says that he will send a “gentleman” to attend to you. Well-bred people, on the other hand rarely use the terms “lady” and ‘"gentleman.” They do not, say of a man that he is a “nice gentleman,” but that he is a “nice man” or a “good sort,” unu they say of a lady that she is a “charming woman,” or a “charming girl.” Beware also of constant repetition of a person’s name. Nothing sounds worse or ife more ill-bred than to say "Mrs. So-and-so’ or Mrs. This-and-that” at the beginning or end of every sentence. On the other hand, if you wish to attract a person’s attention it is correct to address him by his name. Never in any circumstances address a young lady as “Miss” —I mean without adding her surname. To do so is either to put yourself in a position of inferiority, or to put her in one, by speaking to her as if she were a barmaid nr a waitress. —B. H. Hill, in ‘'’Modern Man.”